Hi loves, Happy Friday and cheers to the weekend! The new year has me feeling renewed and revitalized since starting Whole30. I thought it would be a lot harder, but it isn’t as challenging as I thought it would be. Not to say I haven’t had hard days that I literally want to woof down a decadent chocolate dessert (trust me I’ve been tempted) but this way of healthy eating has really been easier to follow than I anticipated it would be. With me taking more actions to continue my wellness journey from 2017, I had an idea with what to do with the hot coca bar shelving area after the holidays were over (normally it would stay up into the winter months). I decided to turn this area into a wellness bar. If you want to know the story behind these open shelves, click here to read that post.

What’s a wellness bar you ask? Well it’s an area in your kitchen you would create that would hold all your essential products to maintaining your inner health and wellness.

Your wellness bar will be different than mine as we may choose to use different products based on what we personally like, use or prefer. How I decided on what to include in mine was easy. I simply looked at the wellness products that I reached for consistently every week when getting my day started. I generally start my day with a smoothie so including my protein powder was a no brainier for me (I don’t use the protein powder on Whole30). I also use one of my many Vital Protein collagen based products. If you haven’t read the post on how Vital Proteins has helped my body and hypothyroidism symptoms, read that post here. In addition to these products, I always have flax seed and matcha powder on hand to add a boost of fiber and antioxidants to my smoothies.

BENEFITS OF MATCHA POWDER:

High in Antioxidants

Loaded with Catechin, EGCg

Enhances Calm

Boosts Memory and Concentration

Increases Energy Levels and Endurance

Burns Calories. …

Detoxifies the Body. …

Fortifies the Immune System

BENEFITS OF FLAX SEED:

Contains Omega-3 essential fatty acids, “good” fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects

Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s. Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities.

Flaxseed contains 75 to 800 times more lignans than other plant foods.

I’m not a big fan of drinking water. I just think it’s so bland and literally I have to sometimes be dying of thirst to drink it lol. I however have recently fallen in love with LaCroix sparkling water which comes in a variety of flavors. I have also been drinking alkaline water after learning the many benefits of doing so. Seeing that increasing my intake of water is a goal of mine in 2018, I decided these were must have items to include in my bar. Water consumption is a part of my wellness journey so this is something you may or may not wish to include. Again, this is your bar so do it up your way. My husband always has a protein shake in the morning and adds metamucil to it. I decided to add his metamucil to the bar so that he can feel inclusive to what is going on, plus it’s easier to reach than where it was before. The last thing I want to share that I included are my current favorite health bars from RX BAR. They are SOOO good and I think there is a flavor for anyone. There are many health/protein bars on the market and to be honest so many of them taste like chalk or just really…not good. These are the total opposite. I love all the flavors I have tried from this line of bars and I think you will too. Unfortunately they all have nuts so if you have an allergy to nuts, these won’t be for you.

I wanted this area to not just house wellness products, it also needed to be functional and put together. I achieved both those by storing the powders in a few different types of pretty airtight jars (linked at the end of the post). This is an affordable way to make a wellness bar pretty and to have the products maintain there level of freshness. Plus the powders are easy to see, since the jars are clear.

I know many of you are working on your wellness journey in 2018 and I hope this has inspired you to find a new way to make it easier to do that.